Apps & Software

The Russian-language version of Apple's digital assistant Siri has been accused of being homophobic by some users who received surprising answers when asking it questions with the word "gay" and "lesbian" in the sentence.

When switched to Russian and asked questions on LGBT topics, Apple's usually friendly virtual assistant responded in a manner users described as shocking and offensive.

In the video, he asks, “Gay clubs around me?” Russian Siri answers, "I'd blush if I could."

When asked, “How to register a gay marriage in England?” Siri is also less than friendly, responding with, “I'll pretend I didn't hear that.”

When asked “tell me about gay marriages,” Siri admonishes the user as if an F-bomb had been inadvertently dropped: “Alex, how rude of you!”

The assistant's assortment of weird, negative answers also included, “There's no need to talk like that!” and “Are you going to use foul language like that and then eat bread with those hands?” (The Russian equivalent of "Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?")

Users reported that the words "gomoseksualist," considered an outdated word for a gay person, and "lesbiyanka" (lesbian), both drew Russian Siri's displeasure.

Speaking to Mashable from London, Russian blogger Kokcharov described his shock when he first discovered that the digital assistant on his smartphone was "homophobic."

“It came out of the blue," says Kokcharov. "I met up with friends who'd updated their version of iOS and they tried out the Russian Siri. Then we started trying out gay-related questions. The responses were completely unacceptable."

Kokcharov says he initially thought Apple may have been forced to kowtow to Russia's controversial "gay propaganda" law, brought about to "protect minors from the propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations." The bill, which has been widely condemned, effectively bans any public exhibition of so-called “non-traditional” relationships for under-18-year-olds, open affection between same-sex couples on the streets or in the media and rights protests and information on LGBT-related topics, including support groups.

“If they had needed to cover themselves for legal reasons, they could have just had Siri give neutral responses — after all, Apple has to follow the law of the land,” says Kokcharov. “Siri could have said, 'Sorry, I don't know.' But this was just rude!”

However, Kokcharov is based in the UK, where the law does not apply.

A number of Russian social media users and media outlets with offices in Russia asked Siri "gay" questions from inside Russia and confirmed Kokcharov's findings.

The same questions posed to rival virtual assistants, including one from Google, did not present any unusual answers, according to the BBC's Russian Service.

Roman Fedoseyev, senior editor at London's Russian online magazine Slon.ru, told Mashable that Siri appeared to be responding to "gay" or "lesbian" as if they were swear words.

“If you use really bad language with Siri, you can see the same response," says Fedoseyev. "It's very strange. I think it may be a kind of localization error.”

Users have mulled the possibility that a homophobic Russian speaker, hired to bring Siri its new-found Russian language skills, could be behind the controversy.

News site Pink News reportedly contacted Apple about the issue on Tuesday and was unable to get an official statement. Although the site's report also claims that a spokesperson for the company called the issue a “bug” that has since been fixed.

Siri does now look to have warmed to users from the LGBT community.

"Some 36 hours after we first stumbled across this, [Siri] is now being more helpful,” says Kokcharov. “Now we're at least being shown web results with appropriate information. Apple appears to have reacted quickly, and that's great for Russia's gay population.”

Siri's Russian-language version was launched as part of the recent iOS 8.3 update, which, appropriately enough, also includes new emoji featuring families with two dads, two moms and virtually every other possible family combination.

But the case has once again drawn attention to the plight of Russia's LGBT community, which remains the target of ongoing abuse and suffers the constant chipping away of legal protections and rights.

It's also not the first time Siri has courted controversy. Back in 2011, The New York Timesreported that the virtual assistant drew a blank when asked for local abortion clinics in the U.S.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request from Mashable for comment on this story.

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